In lieu of any content here’s a picture of a fern in Nottingham’s arboretum. Lots of stuff on at the moment with M208 TMA03, 2 audax gps routes to sort out (Lincolnshire Cross 200km, and “Moors and Wolds” 400km and lots of chances to spend longer than expected at work have contrived to make life a bit duller than expected. Hopefully sorting out the first 2 of those will provide some interesting posts, and unless I really want to become know for Dynamics CRM and SQL Server clustering, I’ll keep the last one to myself.

And we’re not talking about policemen trying to be environmental activists either. Plant growing in Nottingham’s Arboretum park last summer. Taken with Canon EOS 3, 50mm f/1.4 on FP4 @64 ISO and developed in ID-11, scanned on Epson V500

Working through a backlog of photos I found a couple more from the Great Central Railway at Loughborough. Just taken inside the restoration shed of bits and bobs lying around. Though obviously not of the same quality they do remind me of the Maurice Broomfield exhibition we visited in Derby last year. Need to get out and take some more of these sort of photos, but it’s all a bit hectic trying to fit it all in with cycling and OU coursework. Maybe need to work out a decent way of carrying the camera kit on a bit. Shame I don’t have rack mounts atm.

(Both photos taken with Canon EOS3, Sigma 24-70 2.8 on Ilford FP4+ @ISO125, developed in ID-11 and scanned on Epson V500).

So which trusted construction material do you think this is?

Despite all appearances this isn’t wood. It is in fact concrete. To be exact it’s concrete somewhere on the Royal Festival hall. Looks like someone decided the concrete montser would look better if they tried to make it look like wood.

You can see some more of the texturing in this photo:

So, it looks like they decided to use it quite liberally over the whole building.

This weekend sees a jaunt up to Infest to take some band photos, it’s been a while so hopefully I can remember which end to point at the stage. Debating whether to take the film camera as well. And then there’s always the change of  getting some reportage shots as there’ll be fuckwits protesting as well in the city centre.

(photos taken with Canon EOS3, Sigma 24-70 EX 2.8 on Ilford FP4+ @125 iso, developed in Ilford DD-X and scanned on an Epson v500)

Or at least I hope not, as it’s part of the support for the Millenium Bridge in London.  This one came out pretty sharp considering it was hand held in a rather dark spot at an swkward angle to try and get the support beam in. Yet another photo from a day wandering around the southbank (previously)

Taken with Canon EOS3, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 on Ilford Fp4+ @125 ISO, developed in Ilford DD-x and scanned on an Epson v500

Something (most likely a squirrel) appears to have been eating on top of this wall slab somewhere in Nottingham’s Mapperly park

More playing around with FP4+, again shot at ISO 64 and developed for 125.  Lots of lovely detail in the gritted edges of the slab. And the bokehed highlights at the back look nice as well.

Went for a wander round the yards at the Great Central at the weekend for a bit of a contemplative look around. In the harsh sunlight this cracked and peeling door on an old goods van was too good a chance to miss.

Minimal photoshopping, just a bit of contrast and level adjustment, plus a slight sharpen to compensate for the scanning.

Canon EOS 3, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8, Ilford fp4+ @ ISO 125, developed in ID-11 1+1, scanned on an epson v500.

So while waiting for the abortive attempt to visit Exposure at Tate Modern I spent the day wandering along the South bank of the Thames with cameras trying to look for something different.

The foot bridges looked interesting, but covered in people using them (this was about 3 in the afternoon). So, not wanting to wait for 13 hours for sunrise I decided to see how well multiple short exposures would work to ‘ghost’ out the walkers. From the above it seems to have worked well.

I really like the first one of the Millenium bridge. The lighting seems to have worked out nicely and I like the slightly washed out tones. And the backdrop of St Paul’s works nicely. Just a bit of a shame about the fact that the trees aren’t planted symmetrically. Everyone seems to have disappeared, apart from the gentleman in the wheelchair playing the steel drum.

Hungerford bridge turned out a bit differently, definitely a bit more claustrophobic and darker. Was actually crammed into a little nook on the bridge itself so the ‘ghosts’ are more visible. Don’t think this one is quite as sharp, but I think that’s down to a cheap tripod and a little bit of bridge vibration (I did think about doing something similar on the Millenium bridge, but standing on it and remembering it’s vibration problems I don’t think it would have worked).

Taken on a Canon EOS 3 with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens on Ilford FP4+  @ 125ISO, developed in ID-11 @ 1:1 and scanned on an Epson v500.

Don’t think this Zone’s as closely controlled as Nottingham City Council would like. Or maybe the graffiti only appears after 5pm Mon-Sat?

Canon EOS 300, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, Ilford FP4+ @ ISO125, developed in DD-X 1+4, scanned on Epson V500